End Game
by bravevulnerability
Summary: AU based on 3x08, 'Murder Most Fowl'. Inspired by a prompt from the castlefanficprompts page on tumblr: Richard Castle meets Detective Beckett when they show up at the soccer field that their children are playing their game on. One shot.


_Prompt: AU based on 3x08. Richard Castle meets Detective Beckett when they show up at the soccer field that their children are playing their game on._

* * *

Rick groans as Alexis loses the ball. Her lips purse in frustration as she nearly trips in her haste to spin and race after the boy who stole it away from her, her braid a line of fire that follows after her. He doesn't take the games seriously, but he knows Alexis does, and for the sake of his little girl's sanity, he really hopes their team wins.

"Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"

He glances up at the breathless exhale of a question from the woman - oh, _gorgeous_ woman, wow - standing in front of him, nodding to the empty space on the bench. Castle quickly scoots over an extra inch.

"Of course," he smiles, watching her ease down beside him. She looks utterly exhausted, but her eyes light up as they land on the field, on the boy who just snagged the ball from his daughter. "Do you have a kid playing?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," she huffs, offering her hand. "Kate Beckett. My son plays and I'm late. Again."

He hears the whistle blow and watches the teams of ten year olds disperse. Red shirts sprint to one side of the field, blue shirts jogging to the other for a huddle.

"At least you're here," Castle reasons, waving to Alexis when she glances up to the stands. She beams back at him with that growing, toothy grin. "Which one is yours?"

"Tyler," Kate answers, the lovely mixture of green and brown that claims her irises flickering with gold as she must spot her son, pointing a subtle finger towards the red team - Alexis's rivals. But he can't help smiling too when a tall, lean boy looks up, solemn eyes scanning the crowd of parents. They light up in the exact same way the woman's - Kate's - do when they spot her. "I don't always make his games," she explains, waving her fingers and receiving a shy, answering smile from her son. "Usually his grandpa is his main supporter, but I know the season is coming to a close and I didn't want to miss this one."

Grandpa, huh?

"Cute kid, really good at the game too," Castle compliments, earning the turn of Kate's head, the curve of her lips. "He's giving my daughter a run for her money, that's for sure."

She laughs, soft and rich, and oh… he really shouldn't have let her sit next to him.

"Oh no, the adorable redhead?"

"That's the one," he chuckles, watching the teams return to the field, finding their positions. "She's a little perfectionist, hates to lose."

"Ah, Tyler's not too different," she sighs, clasping her hands atop her knees. "He can be competitive, but I think he enjoys the sport enough not to be a sore loser when they don't have a victory for every game."

"Do you guys have anything planned after this? Celebratory - or sympathy - ice cream run?"

Kate arches an eyebrow, the corners of her mouth still upturned, but shakes her head. "No, I didn't have much in mind. I know my dad usually takes him out for dinner, so I was probably going to head to this diner he loves afterwards, win or lose."

"Have I met your dad before? I feel like I must have if he's been at every game," Castle murmurs, but he can't recall hearing about Tyler. Surely, her father would be just as proud and gushing of the boy as Kate is right now.

"Probably not. He tends to sit up there," Kate tilts her head towards the top of the bleachers, cold and empty. "Likes to be able to see everything, make sure Tyler can see him."

"Sounds like a good man," he answers honestly, wishing he did have the chance to meet him prior to meeting the striking daughter. "Mind if I ask what you do? Since it obviously must be a pretty hectic job."

He watches her hesitate for a moment, brushing back a strand of hair behind her ear and buying an extra handful of seconds.

"Homicide detective," she replies, her gaze expectant as she sneaks a peek at him from the corner of her eye. But he's too busy trying to suppress his excitement, his intrigue.

"That is so cool."

Another bubble of laughter pops on her lips. "Oh yeah?"

"Um, duh," he scoffs. "I knew you were a badass, I could tell right away."

"Thanks, I think," she chuckles, returning her attention to the field, tracking her son running across it in pursuit of the ball. "And you?"

"Me? Oh, yeah, I'm just a writer," he murmurs with a shrug, hoping that for the first time, this woman won't recognize him. That she hasn't seen all of the trashy articles in the paper and displays of the image he's encouraged to play in interviews.

Today, he just wants to be Alexis's father, a parent to a kid on the field, just like she is. Not the asshole playboy he's growing tired of portraying, embarrassing Alexis with.

"Really? Anything I may have heard of?" she inquires, but it doesn't look as if she's onto him.

Then again, she _is_ a detective…

"Just some mystery novels," Rick hedges. "Derrick Storm-"

"Ah, Mr. Castle," she hums, a smirk claiming the lovely line of her lips. "Thought you looked familiar."

Dammit.

"Oh, you a fan, Detective Beckett?"

"Kate," she corrects with a roll of her eyes. "And no, just recognized the character name."

"I'm mildly insulted," he huffs, but he grins when her lips twitch. "Can I bribe you with celebratory ice cream regardless of the winning child out there and a signed copy of one of my novels?"

"Mm, I'd prefer a celebratory milkshake and I won't say no to the book, since I did just run out of Patterson novels-"

"Ugh, Patterson?" he groans, clutching his chest.

She shrugs. "I'm a fan of the genre."

"More like a fan of torturing me, from the looks of it," he mutters, watching her smirk return. But it's quickly overshadowed by her shout of joy when Tyler steals the ball from a boy in blue and runs it towards the red team's goal.

Her son kicks and the soccer ball flies past their goalie's head, scoring the winning point. Kate rises to her feet, clapping before releasing an impressive whistle. Castle stands beside her when the teams line up to shake hands, clapping for Alexis, who starts towards the stands with Tyler at her side.

"So, milkshakes?" Rick asks as they both gather their things, waiting for their kids to return with their soccer bags.

Her teeth stab into her bottom lip for a long moment, contemplative as her sparkling eyes roam his face. "Let's leave it up to them."

Alexis is jogging up to him then, Tyler right behind her and rushing past to meet his mother.

"Mom! You made it," he smiles, dropping his duffel to wrap his arms around Kate's waist.

Castle's heart flutters at the sight of the beautiful detective bending to embrace her son, murmuring praises while she brushes the sweat dampened hair from his forehead. He sees devoted parents here on the field all the time, but there's just something about the way Kate's entire face lights up for her son and the pure joy on Tyler's to have her here. Most of the ten year old boys he knows here aren't too keen on hugs from their mothers.

"Hey Pumpkin," Castle greets as Alexis's catches up, mimicking Kate and combing back his daughter's sweaty bangs. "You were such a champ out there today."

Alexis offers him a bashful smile. "Thanks, Daddy. I had fun."

"That's all that matters," he nods, proud of his daughter for losing some of her desperation to win over the last couple of games. They've definitely had to spend this past season working on that. "I see you know Tyler here."

"Yeah, he's the MVP of the red team," Alexis quips, leaning into Castle's side when he relieves her of the pink and black duffel bag.

"You rule the blue team, Lexi," Tyler returns with a grin, stripping off his shin guards and shoving them inside his bag.

Kate ruffles her son's hair. "I think you both did a fantastic job out there. It was a close game."

"Very close," Rick concurs. "I say we celebrate this game with milkshakes."

"At Remy's?" Tyler asks, glancing up to Kate with hopeful eyes that Rick shares.

"Would that be okay with you, Alexis?" she requests before giving an answer of her own.

Well, if he wasn't smitten before…

Alexis's cheeks are already stained red with exertion, but she still manages to blush ever so slightly at the shift of attention onto her, shrinking a little deeper into his side. "Can we, Daddy?"

"Of course, honey."

"Then yes!" Alexis chirps, grabbing his hand and beginning to skip towards the fence.

Kate smiles and follows after them with Tyler at her side, already reliving the game in excited murmurs and hand gestures.

"Meet you there?" Castle asks as Alexis scrambles into his car and Tyler tosses his bag into the trunk of a police cruiser, slipping into the front seat with ease.

"Yeah, just follow me. It's in the East Village, easy to find," she assures him, tugging the driver's door open. Rick does the same, starts the engine, and prepares to follow her out of the soccer field's lot.

"Hey Daddy?" Alexis calls from the backseat, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Yes, Pumpkin?"

"Do you have a crush on Tyler's mom?"

Castle sputters and puts the car in drive. "What?"

Alexis is already smiling, smug and adorable and so unfair.

"You were staring at her a lot," she hums, swinging her legs back and forth. "And she was smiling at you and Tyler told me once that his mom doesn't do that a lot."

"She was? And she doesn't?" he asks, his brow falling into a crease. "When did he tell you this, sweetheart?"

"Well, remember when Mom came to one of my games?" Alexis prompts, waiting for his nod of confirmation before continuing. Even though it's been _months_ since Meredith showed up for Alexis in any way, let alone making the time for one of her soccer games. "Lacey was asking if you and her were married again and I said no, so she started asking when I was going to get a new mom and then started teasing Tyler about not having a dad, but then Tyler told her it was none of her business," Alexis announces proudly. "And he told me later that we didn't need two parents if one loved us enough. Then he said his mom has annoying guys who like her all the time, just like you! Only with girls. But she never likes them back."

Oh, wow, he really does like Kate's kid.

"And so I told him you never like the women who hit on you either, even though you sign their chests."

Castle feels his neck flush while his ears begin to burn with shame. He really should be setting a better example for his daughter.

"That's right. When I give autographs like… that, it's only for the role."

"Your playboy role?" Alexis mutters, rolling her eyes. The older his daughter gets, the more irritated she becomes with the persona, with Paula for pushing him to embrace it more with each year.

"Yeah, but I don't - I don't think I'm going to do that anymore," he admits, and even though his daughter lifts her eyes to the rearview again, almost hopeful, she manages a shrug for him.

"I know you're just acting, Dad. But you weren't acting today with Miss Beckett."

He huffs a laugh at the mischievous grin his daughter conjures up.

"No, I wasn't. Tyler's mom isn't like those women."

Alexis nods her agreement. "She's really pretty. And Tyler's cool too."

He refuses to get ahead of himself, to even begin pursuing the idea of his 'crush' on Kate Beckett. Even if he does have his daughter's apparent approval. That doesn't mean his excitement fails wanes when he parks his car behind Kate's on the street, gets out with Alexis, and sits across from Kate in a booth at Remy's with a perfect view of her smile.

It surely doesn't kill the unmanly butterflies swarming his system when she directs that smile at him.

* * *

"Mr. Castle totally has a crush on you."

"Tyler," Kate huffs, chucking his jersey at him as she rifles through his soccer bag for dirty laundry. They've just returned home from the game, from dinner at Remy's with Rick and Alexis Castle, and she still has a small but persistent smile tugging at her lips.

"I'm telling you, Mom," he teases from the sofa, tossing his soccer ball up and down into the air. "And for the record, you have my blessing to go out with him, but only if I get to interrogate him like Uncle Javi taught me first."

"I'm not going out with him and you're not doing any interrogating either," she grumbles, catching the jersey he tosses back to her and taking his clothes to the hamper. "And who said I need your permission?"

Tyler rolls his eyes. "As the man of the house, Mom, it is my responsibility to approve of who you hang out with. Just like you do with my friends."

"Have we forgotten that you are ten and the child in this relationship?"

"I'll be eleven in two months," he reminds her. "But Mr. Castle's a cool guy. He comes to all of Lexi's games, even that one time when she was benched because she hurt her knee."

"He's a good dad," Kate murmurs, hiding the soft smile blooming on her lips behind the curtain of her hair.

"You're a good mom too," Tyler adds, always trying too hard to ease her guilt, her fears at not being good _enough_. She sighs, prepares to assure him, but he's already pressing on. "I know you don't make all my games, but it's because you're saving the city. Like Rick said, you're like Batman."

"Remind me to thank him for that analogy," she mumbles, but she leans over to press a kiss to Tyler's forehead, her little boy who's grown up so fast, who is better than she would ever expect or deserve at ten years old. "Go get ready for bed, Robin. It's still a school night."

"I bet you five dollars he'll ask you out before our next game," Tyler quips, hopping up from the sofa and starting towards the bathroom.

"You don't even have five dollars," Kate calls after him, but her son merely smirks around his toothbrush.

Her phone buzzes before she can consider a serious conversation, the nagging worry that Tyler may like Rick too much, may be harboring hopes for that role of a male figure in his life more than he lets on. She withholds her sigh as she snags it from the counter, her breath catching at Castle's name on the screen.

 _Thanks for a great post game celebration. Enjoyed getting to meet you and seeing our kids have fun off the field. Same time, same place, after the next game?_

Kate chews on her bottom lip, types out a reply with her thumb.

 _Sounds perfect._

* * *

He saves a spot for her at the next game, feels the grin splitting across his lips and kickstarting his jittery heart when he notices her sprinting towards the bleachers in boots with an impressively high heel.

"Wow, right on time, Detective."

Kate smirks and takes a seat beside him, their thighs brushing, shoulders bumping, but she doesn't move away. "Thanks. I left Ryan and Esposito with most of the paperwork."

They develop a habit of chatting while Alexis and Tyler battle for the ball. He learns about her job, her overwhelming schedule, her father, and her life as a single mom with Tyler, and she listens intently any time he mentions Alexis, his writing, and even his mother, who promises to accompany him one of these days.

Remy's becomes his favorite place to go. The comfortable brush of her foot at his shin, typically finding rest against his calf throughout the length of their meal, becomes the highlight of his evenings, his weeks. Their kids chattering about soccer games and school, TV shows and books they both enjoy, becomes a welcome soundtrack, and he finds himself wishing for more. More than just sitting with her in bleachers once a week and at dinner for one more hour before having to part ways.

He wishes for the opportunity to take her out on a real date, to feel her hand in his, to taste her smile.

After their fourth game spent together, the second to last of the season, he makes a plan.

"Hey, Alexis?" he asks on the way to Remy's after the game. His daughter perks up in the backseat, offering him her full, wide-eyed attention. "How would you feel if I asked Kate out on a date?"

Alexis grins at him in the rearview mirror. "Tyler's going to owe me five dollars! I knew you'd ask before our last game."

Castle gasps. "I take you to these games to play soccer and you're out there making bets on my love life?"

"You have a crush on Kate, she has a crush on you," Alexis shrugs, but the cheeky smile on her lips remains. "It was only a matter of time."

"You've been spending too much time with Gram, haven't you?" he mutters, parking alongside the street across from Kate's cruiser. "But seriously, if Kate says yes, you wouldn't mind me going on dates?"

Alexis rolls her eyes and - oh god, he's catching glimpses of her as a teenager already - shakes her head. "Dad, Kate's pretty and nice and funny too, and you never date girls like her. It'd…" His daughter pauses and directs her eyes to her lap, toys nervously with her fingers. "I like her and it'd make me happy if you dated her."

Castle exhales a silent sigh of relief.

"Well, then I really hope she says yes."

* * *

After their post-game dinner at Remy's, they take a walk through Tompkins Square Park, the kids still buzzing with energy despite a full meal. She calls out to the two of them as they race ahead, reminding them to stay within sight before she settles into an easy stroll beside Rick.

"What is it our children are plotting about?" she inquires with an amused look towards Tyler and Alexis only a few feet ahead of them, heads close and hands gesturing.

Castle releases a quiet laugh that sounds far too nervous for her liking and Kate glances to him with a furrowed brow. "Ah, I might have an idea."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I… well, Alexis and I had this talk in the car on the way over and I was kind of asking her permission on something I wanted to do," Castle hedges, but she still isn't following. At all. "And I think it's something she and Tyler may have been hoping for, so they're a bit… interested to see how it goes."

"Rick, with my job and its workload, I'm way too tired to figure out where you're going with this so-"

"I just wanted to ask you if you'd like to go to dinner sometime," he states, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket and swallowing hard, his throat rippling in the brightening glow of streetlights.

She slows beside him, hooking her fingers in the crook of his elbow to draw him back with her, both of their gazes flickering to Tyler and Alexis, both children preoccupied and hanging from an arch of monkey bars in the cool evening air.

"Castle, I like you and I know my son adores you," she begins on a soft sigh, chewing on her bottom lip as he steps in closer, roams intent blue eyes over her face.

They've spent a lot of time talking over the last month, probably the most talking she's ever done in any of her relationships, whether it be on soccer fields or in diner booths, on the phone too late at night. He knows things she never would have fathomed telling him, trusts him with so many secrets and pieces of her past that very few know. She told him about her mom without planning to, letting it all spill out into the speaker of the phone in the middle of the night. She let him encompass her in an embrace of words until she fell asleep that night and stepped into his arms the next day behind the shield of vehicles in the parking lot of the soccer field before the game.

But to trust him with her heart any further, with the parts of it that aren't already broken and cracked... she just doesn't know if she's capable of it.

"I just - when I lost my mom, it's like I put up this wall inside and the only person I've ever allowed inside of it has been my son."

Rick nods his understanding, but grazes his fingers along the back of her hand. Her hand flexes towards him before she can control the reaction, fingers fitting between the spaces of his.

"Okay, well, what if I began construction on a door?"

A laugh gets caught in her throat, quiet and choked, but a laugh nonetheless and it strikes her that no one has ever made her smile like this, so genuine and frequently. And maybe it terrifies her, how this extra light he brings into her life will make it hurt twice as much if he disappears, but maybe it's worth the risk.

For once, maybe she owes it to herself, to Tyler, to embrace something she wants, something that can make her happy.

Someone who already does.

"I don't want to hurt you, Kate," he murmurs more seriously, quiet enough for just the two of them to hear. "Or Tyler, I just… every week, I'm so ridiculously excited to attend my daughter's soccer games because I know you'll be there, because I know we'll go to Remy's afterwards and I get to spend another hour with you, because Alexis thinks you're the coolest woman in existence and Tyler's a great kid and proven to be a good friend to my daughter. Because this last month with you has shown me just how strong and beautiful and remarkable you are and I want more."

"Castle-"

"And I understand if it's too soon and if that's the case, I can wait or we can just-"

Kate touches her fingers to his cheek before she drifts in to press a kiss to his lips, soft and fleeting, chaste, but enough to have sparks catching flame inside her chest, leaving her breathless.

"More sounds good," she whispers, the tip of her nose nudging his as she lifts her eyes, tilts her chin to glance up at him.

The fingers still twined through hers gently squeeze and her lips spread into a smile over his.

"Oh, gross, they're kissing."

Kate chuckles and brushes her smile to Castle's cheek at the disgusted mutter of her son and Alexis's disapproving sigh.

"A little gross, but also kinda sweet," Castle's daughter muses.

"Glad we have their approval," Rick murmurs, his eyes gleaming sapphire as he steps back, but he doesn't let go of her hand. "Do you know they've been making bets on us?"

She groans and tugs on his hand, fitting her fingers a little more snugly with his, sealing their palms into a kiss. "I knew Tyler was making bets against _me_ , but I didn't know they were in on it together."

"Coconspirators, shameful. Wait, bets against you?"

Her cheeks heat and she's grateful for the darkening sky to shield the flush of her skin. "He's been betting me five dollars every week that you'd ask me out before the last game."

"Yeah, because apparently he has the same bet going with Alexis and will need that five dollars to pay her. She just told me in the car that _she_ bet against _him_ that I'd ask you out before the last game," Castle grumbles.

Kate buries her chuckle of amusement into his shoulder, relishing the lean of her body into the warmth of his side.

"It's not so bad," she murmurs, glancing up to him in the dying light of the day. "Rather have them being supportive than resistant."

"Mm, luckily, we all seem to be on the same team here," he agrees, guiding her towards Alexis on Tyler, still dangling from the park's monkey bars and exchanging grins. Something inside her spills over with warmth, puts her unsteady heart at ease.

"Yeah, you make a pretty good partner, Castle."


End file.
